How CCF saved a GRA revenue collector jailed 20 years for stealing

28-year-old Stanley Ankamah, a former staff of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has spent two decades in prison for embezzling revenue he collected for the Authority in the early 2000s.

The now 48-year-old man said he bought two houses from about Ghc 80,000 (800,000 old cedis) he misappropriated.

His wasted 20 years in prison have left him destitute and cannot afford transport fare home after he was released from prison.

In 2004, life turned its back on him, when Stanley, a staff member of the Ghana Revenue Authority, said he went out with a team of revenue collectors to the field to collect revenue for the Authority Takoradi.

On their way back to the office after collecting revenue for the day, he hit a jackpot when his team leader, a senior officer of the Authority gave him money full of a checkered bag.

The money turned his life around impermanently.

“I was the junior staff among them. So when we got to the middle of the road on our way back to the office, our leader asked the driver to pull over the bus we were traveling in. He then asked, the driver and me to excuse them because they wanted to hold a short meeting,” he said that was when they plotted to loot the revenue they had collected.

Stanley said when he and the driver were called back to the bus, their leader told them the bags of money on their seats were for them.

“I asked why he was giving us the money and he said it was ours to take home. I couldn’t believe it but couldn’t also decline to take the money because I was a newly employed staff and my opinions were not needed so I took the money home. The leader said they had planned what he would tell his superiors,” he recounted.

Stanley continued that, the team leader framed that armed robbers attacked them and made away with the monies.

His arrest

The young man indicated that “those of us who were on the bus were asked to go for a police report. We were later suspended to allow for investigations but after two weeks I was asked to return to the office. When I got to the office, I was told I was wanted at the police headquarters. I never came back home until after 20 years,” he narrated.

Stanley Ankamah visited the offices of Crime Check Foundation (CCF) for help.

Rudolph Nandi